Tezuka Osamu

Dr. Osamu Tezuka was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years.

Osamu Tezuka's Official site

• Gave guidance to many known cartoonists such as Shotaro Ishinomori and Go Nagai.
• Father of Macoto Tezuka.
• He graduated in 1960 from the Medical University of Nara (Japan) with a dissertation about the membrane structure of sea nails.
• During the US occupation of Japan after World War 2, he sold pin-up drawings of women to US troops, often trading his artwork for military rations.
• During his lifetime, over-zealous Japanese fans called him "The god of Japanese comics".
• He was accused of racism after drawing blacks in sterotypical fashion, but insisted that he was only continuing the styles he saw in American comics and films. This point has often been a source of constant soul-searching among Tezuka's publishers, especially in the USA. As of 2003, Dark Horse has begun to publish Tezuka's manga wholly unedited in the US, adding a disclaimer that states that while Tezuka held no racism himself, his artwork was a product of its time, and that further that it would be wrong to retroactively change his works without his input.
• An incredibly prolific (and fast) artist, he was known to draw as many as ten pages of artwork in a single day.
• Was an avid baseball fan, and licensed the "grown up" version of his character Kimba the White Lion as the logo for the Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
• Originated the "big eyes" look that is now commonly used in Japanese animation and manga.
• Walt Disney's movies were his seminal influence, but 40 years later, Disney creates "Lion King" based on his work "Kimba the White Lion" where circle of influence came around full circle.
• Often writes comics about rebirth. Astro Boy was a robot rebirth of his creator's son. The entire "Hi no tori" (Firebird) series is about rebirth. Character Pinoko in his comic "Black Jack" is a rebirth of body-less embryo taken out of his sister's body.
• His hobbies are Bug Collecting and Entomology.
• Liked to make cameos in his manga.